US and Iraqi officials announced the withdrawal of the last American troops from bases in Iraq on Wednesday, fulfilling a plan agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by the Trump administration while it wages war with Iran next door.
The withdrawal was celebrated by Iran and its allies. It marked an “historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and honorable Iraqis, and a crushing defeat for the American project,” said Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions.
Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003, has a Shi’ite majority like Iran, and Tehran has established broad political and military influence there.
The country has frequently become a proxy battlefield between the United States and Iran. Of the 18 US service members listed as killed since Trump launched “Operation Epic Fury” in February, seven died in Iraq. Washington blames Iran-backed groups in Iraq for striking neighbouring countries, most recently knocking out a big Saudi oil pipeline three weeks ago.
Iraqi security officers flash victory signs during a convoy in Baghdad celebrating the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Sept. 30, 2026. (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)
The US withdrawal raises “the possibility that Iran’s proxies will feel increasingly empowered in the absence of a Western military presence,” said Baghdad-based political analyst Ahmed Younis. “These groups may attempt to expand their role in shaping state policies and consolidating their presence within key institutions.”
At home in the United States, polls show the Iran war was unpopular from the outset. The disruption to global energy supplies and resulting surge in fuel prices have hurt Trump’s Republicans, trying to hang on to both houses of Congress in legislative elections five weeks away.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged Americans on Tuesday to vote out Trump’s allies.
“Remove from power the evil, deceitful, and violent politicians who are responsible for America’s current state,” they wrote in a 26-page letter to US voters. “Make sure your politicians understand that the world has changed.”
The war has intensified an economic crisis inside Iran, but Tehran has retained the ability to strike its neighbors and menace ships in the strait, where a fifth of global oil transited before the war. Trump says the war will be over soon and Iran will ultimately surrender.
“I don’t know if they are going to give up yet but they’ll give up,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “They are doing very poorly.”
Reuters
